The present invention relates to conditioner rolls for an agricultural crop conditioner and more particularly relates to conditioner rolls having removable crop conditioning flutes or elements.
There are many types of crop conditioner rolls. Some have polyurethane flutes. Others have steel flutes or steel Y-flail impellers. All rolls eventually wear out. Rubber and polyurethane wear faster than steel. Worn rolls degrade crop conditioning and they feed poorly causing uneven windrows.
Rubber and polyurethane rolls are expensive and require very expensive tooling to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,811,819, issued to Heth on 5 Nov. 1957, discloses a conditioner roll including a tubular metal core onto which a plurality of cast metal flutes or bars are releasably fixed by bolts which extend through the flutes and are screwed into threaded holes provided in the wall of the core. Since molds are required to make these cast flutes, they too are relatively expensive. Furthermore, the thickness of the roll core does not provide adequate length for establishing a secure connection between the flutes and the core.
According to the present invention, there is provided an improved conditioner roll, and more particularly, there is provided an improved removable flute assembly for a conditioner roll having a tubular metal core.
It is an object of the invention to provide an easy, reliable and economical method of replacing worn or damaged conditioning elements while reusing the tubular metal core assembly.
A more specific object of the invention is to is to provide a conditioner roll comprising a tubular metal core and flutes in the form of elongated channel members each releasably attached to the core by a plurality of bolts respectively extending through aligned sets of holes provided in the core and flutes and being engaged in threads having a length greater than a nominal thickness of the metal core.
Yet another specific object of the invention is to provide a conditioner roll, as set forth in the immediately preceding object, wherein, in accordance with a first embodiment, each bolt extends outwardly through a respective set of the aligned holes in the core and flute and includes a serrated shoulder which is forced into the metal surrounding the core hole so as to prevent the bolt from turning when a nut is applied to a threaded end of the bolt.
Still another specific object of the invention is to provide a conditioner roll, as set forth above, wherein, in accordance with a second embodiment, a plurality of special nuts are swaged in place in the holes provided in the roll core so that the threaded part of each nut is inside the core and the bolts extend inwardly through the respective holes in the flutes and are threaded into aligned swaged nuts.
These and other objects will become more apparent from a reading of the ensuing description together with the appended drawings.